The "thirteen days" of the title refers to the period of reprieve before the Sacco-Vanzetti execution.

Release date is 2026-03-09

Shawn Carraher and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)

"Thirteen days" by Jeannette Augustus Marks is a historical account written in the early 20th century. It offers an eyewitness chronicle of the final days surrounding the executions of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti and their immediate aftermath, seen from inside the Boston Defense Committee. Through close contact with figures like Mary Donovan, Aldino Felicani, and Gardner Jackson, the work examines justice, public protest, police repression, and the moral strain on those involved.

The opening of this work follows the author rushing to Boston in August as the committee braces for an execution date, capturing tense scenes inside the cramped headquarters, heavy police scrutiny, and the quiet endurance of the prisoners’ families. A last-minute twelve-day reprieve shifts to renewed organizing, picketing, and arrests, with Donovan’s relentless efforts standing out against official stonewalling. The narrative builds to the night of August 22, when final appeals fail and the executions proceed, recorded in spare, shocked detail. In the days after, crowds view the bodies, Donovan is arrested for displaying Judge Thayer’s inflammatory words, and protests erupt worldwide. The “March of Sorrow” funeral procession—tens of thousands walking eight miles in rain with red armbands—pushes on despite repeated police harassment, ending with a pared-down group at Forest Hills and a stark cremation service. Throughout, the author interweaves brief portraits, last letters, and a pointed critique of the institutions and elites that enabled the outcome, contrasting their power with the prisoners’ composure and the mourners’ resolve. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: New York: Albert & Charles Boni, 1929